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Folk Life
Journal of Ethnological Studies
Volume 43, 2004 - Issue 1
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Articles

Constructing Identities of the Irish Migratory Potato Workers in Scotland

Pages 32-55 | Published online: 18 Jul 2013

REFERENCES

  • Heather Holmes, 'As good as a holiday': Potato Harvesting in the Lothians from 1870 to the Present, East Linton, 2000, pp. 185–219.
  • James E. Handley, The Irish in Modern Scotland, Cork, 1947.
  • Jonathan Bell, 'Economic change in the Dunfanaghy Area of North Donegal, 1900-1940', unpublished PhD thesis, The Queen's University of Belfast, 1982; Jonathan Bell, 'Donegal women as migrant workers in Scotland', Review of Scottish Culture, 7, 1991, 73–80; Jonathan Bell, 'Migratory labourers from Donegal', Saothar, 9, 1983, 100—106.
  • Anne O'Dowd, Spalpeens and Tattle Hokers: History and Folklore of the Irish Migratory Agricultural Worker in Ireland and Britain, Blackrock, 1991.
  • Patrick MacGill, The Rat-Pit, London, 1986, p. v.
  • Heather Holmes, 'Remembering their history: memories of Irish migratory agricultural workers in Scotland', Human Affairs, 12:2, 2002, 139–52.
  • BPP, 1917–18, C. 8731, XIV, Royal Commission on the Housing of the Industrial Population of Scotland, Rural and Urban.
  • For example, BPP, 1899, C. 9273, XXXVIII, Fourth annual report of the Local Government Board for Scotland, 1898; BPP, 1900, Cd. 182, XXXVI, Fifth annual report of the Local Government Board for Scotland, 1899; BPP, 1908, Cd. 4142, XXXII, Thirteenth annual report of the Local Government Board of Scotland, 1907.
  • Papers are located in National Archives of Scotland (hereafter NAS), file AF59/63.
  • Heather Holmes, 'Improving the Housing Conditions for the Irish migratory potato workers in Scotland: the work of the Bishops' (Gresham) Committee, 1920-1923', Rural History, Economy, Society, Culture, 9:1, 1998, 57-74
  • Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, Agricultural Statistics, Ireland, 1902. Reports and Tables Relating to Migratory Agricultural Labourers, Dublin, 1902, 9 (BPP, 1902, CXVI, Cd. 850).
  • NAS, HH62-, HH63-, HH72–.
  • Heather Holmes, 'As good as a holiday', pp. 220–26.
  • See James O'Toole, revised ed. Sara Smyth, Newsplan: Report of the NEWSPLAN Project in Ireland, London and Dublin, 1998. See entries for Mayo and Donegal newspapers.
  • Heather Holmes, 'Remembering their history', pp. 139–52. Patrick MacGill's Children of the Dead End and The Rat-Pit were both reprinted by Birlinn of Edinburgh in 1999 and in 2001.
  • Heather Holmes, 'As good as a holiday', pp. 221–22; Heather Holmes, "Unwearied investigations and interminable correspondence": the Churches and clerical work in improving housing conditions for Irish migratory potato workers in Scotland', Scottish Economic and Social History, 201, 2000, 47–49.
  • Heather Holmes, 'Irish migratory potato workers in Scotland: Radharc's The Tattie Howkers and its making', Saothar, 26, 2001, 91.
  • Sean O Gin-Ain, Farewell to Mayo: An Emigrant's Memoirs of Ireland and Scotland, Dublin, 1991, preface.
  • Reports of the workers led some newspapers to investigate their conditions and to publish further reports on the workers (Glasgow Herald, 34 August 1920).
  • Heather Holmes, 'Remembering their history', pp. 142–43.
  • National Archives of Ireland (Department of Foreign Affairs), B1o2/2/1.
  • Heather Holmes, 'Sanitary inspectors and the reform of housing conditions for Irish migratory potato workers in Scotland from 1945 to the 197os', Saothar, 24, 1999, 45–58. Heather Holmes, 'Improving the housing conditions for the Irish migratory potato workers in Scotland', pp. 62–63.
  • See authors of annual reports of sanitary departments in East Lothian, Midlothian and Ayrshire.
  • Heather Holmes, 'Improving the housing conditions for the Irish migratory potato workers in Scotland', pp. 62–63.
  • Peadar O'Donnell, 'Achill, Arranmore and Kirkintilloch', Ireland Today, 2:10, 1937, 45–50; Brenda O'Hanrahan, Donegal Authors: A Biography, Blackrock, 1982, p. 2o7; This Week, 4 June 1971.
  • For example, Gerry Brown (News of the World, 18 July 1971), Sheila McNamara (Daily Express, 19 June 1971), 'Record Reporter' (Daily Record,May 1971), Noel Smith (Evening Herald (Dublin), zi June 1971),Irish Independent (21 June 1971, 5 July 1971, 6 July 1971), Sunday Independent (zo June 1971).
  • Patrick MacGill, The Rat-Pit, London, 1986, pp. 126–76.
  • Sean O CiarAin, Farewell to Mayo, p. 90.
  • See NAS, Reports for Ayrshire, HH72/4/2 to HH72/4/18.
  • Royal Commission on Housing in Scotland, Evidence given before the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Industrial Population of Scotland Rural and Urban, Edinburgh, 1921.
  • Royal Commission on Housing in Scotland, Evidence.
  • Sunday Independent, zo June 1971.
  • Jimmy O'Donnell, The Arranmore disaster, 96 November, 1935, n.p. (Ireland), n.d.
  • NAS, HH62/34, Report for Dumbartonshire.
  • Elizabeth McVail, 'An inquiry into the housing of seasonal workers in Scotland', MD thesis, University of Glasgow, 1915.
  • For example, Ayrshire Post, 26 July 1914.
  • For example, Ayrshire Post, 8 July 1910.
  • Patrick MacGill, Children of the Dead End, London, 1985; Patrick MacGill, The Rat-Pit, London, 1986.
  • Peadar O'Donnell, Adrigoole, London, 1929.
  • Irish newspapers especially refer to harvesting work in Ayrshire and the harvesting of the crops of earlies.
  • Report of Inter-Departmental Committee on Seasonal Migration to Great Britain 1937–1938, Dublin, 1938, pp. 19–21.
  • NAS, 'Diary showing work during 1922 of the Committee's inspector Mrs G. Bland', and other reports in file. Also The Ayr Advertiser, 7 July 1921; Mayo News, 4 June 1921; Glasgow Herald, 14 August 1920.
  • Heather Holmes, 'Irish migratory potato workers in Scotland', pp. 91–92, 96–97.
  • Sean O'Ciarain, Farewell to Mayo, Dublin, 1991. It was also reviewed in The Scotsman in 1991.
  • Brenda O'Hanrahan, Donegal Authors, pp. 154–55, 208–12.
  • Heather Holmes, 'The ICirkintilloch bothy fire tragedy of September 16, 1937: an examination of the incident and the resulting legislation', ROSC: Review of Scottish Culture, 9, 1995–96, 57–75.
  • For example, Local Government Board for Scotland, Twelfth annual report of the Local Government Board for Scotland, 1906, Glasgow, 1907 (BPP, 1907, XXIX, Cd. 3470); Ayrshire Post, ii February 1921.
  • Brenda O'Hanrahan, Donegal Authors, pp. 154–55.
  • Heather Holmes, 'Revealing an "underworld" and fighting for its cause: Patrick MacGill, Irish Novelist, and the Irish Migratory Potato Workers in Scotland', Scottish Labour History, 34, 1999, 104.
  • Heather Holmes, 'Revealing an "underworld" and fighting for its cause', pp. 93–113.
  • TV review, An Phoblacht, 17 July 1997.
  • Heather Holmes, 'Irish migratory potato workers in Scotland', pp. 96–97; Cork Examiner, 20 March 1971; Irish Press, 20 March 1971; Sunday Independent, 21 March 1971.
  • Mayo News, 3 July 1971; The Western People, To July 1971.
  • The news campaign had a number of stages. In the first, in early May, allegations were made that the workers were ill-treated and brutally attacked. In mid May, investigations of the conditions were demanded. In late May, press coverage focused on a number of workers who had escaped from the squads under attention, those of the Nevin gaffers. The fourth took place in early June, when a report was sent to the Procurator Fiscal showing that there was insufficient evidence for a court case against the Nevins; at around that time Paddy Harte and Alderman Coughlan undertook tours of inspection of the conditions experienced by the workers in Scotland. In the fifth, during mid/late June, joint discussions were held by Senior Inspectors of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries of Scotland and the Irish Embassy. These were followed by the next stage. Reports were made by a number of journalists who interviewed workers and gaffers. That action continued for a number of weeks. The next stage took place in early July when Father Cassidy's long-awaited report was sent to Gordon Campbell, Secretary of Scotland, and Cardinal Gordon Grey. Shortly afterwards, in mid July, the campaign was completed after a number of journalists surveyed conditions in the Scottish potato fields (The Western People, Io July 1971).
  • Evidence from R. M. Holmes, Pilmuir Farm, Balerno, November 1991--
  • Kathryn Woodward (ed.), Identity and Difference, London, 1997, p. 35.
  • Ayrshire Advertiser, 26 June 1913.
  • NAS, HH62/13, Report for Dumbartonshire, p. 6o.
  • Scottish National Dictionary, s.v. 'tattie'.
  • See Patrick Gallacher, My Story, London, 1939.
  • 'Housing of potato diggers: Conditions in Ayrshire', Ayrshire Post, 20 August 1920.
  • NAS, HH62/33, Report for Dumbartonshire, p. 53; see also HH62/39, Report for Ayrshire, p. 50.
  • The Ayrshire Advertiser, 20 June 1912, 19 June 1913, 26 June 1913.
  • North British Agriculturist, 4 July 1900.
  • Patrick MacGill, The Rat-Pit, p. 130.
  • Patrick MacGill, The Rat-Pit, p. 130.
  • Patrick MacGill, The Rat-Pit, p. 129.
  • Patrick MacGill, The Rat-Pit, p. 132.
  • Mayo News, 28 September 1929.
  • Jimmy O'Donnell, The Arranmore disaster, Saturday, 9th November, 1935, p. 3.
  • Mayo News, 28 September 1929.
  • Jimmy O'Donnell, The Arranmore Disaster, p. 2.
  • The contrast between the Protestant Scots and Catholic Irish is especially highlighted in Patrick MacGill, The Rat-Pit, pp. 126–68.
  • Ayrshire Advertiser, 4 July 1907.
  • Irish Independent, October 1937.
  • Connaught Telegraph, 22 January 1910.
  • Ayrshire Post, 26 June 1914.
  • Patrick MacGill, The Rat-Pit, p. 130.
  • NAS, HH62/35, Report for Fife, p. 27.
  • NAS, HH62/39, Report for Ayrshire, p. 50.
  • NAS, AF59/63, p. 9.
  • Glasgow Herald, i July 1929, 2 November 1910; Ayrshire Advertiser, 23 July 1910.
  • BPP, 1901, XXVII, p. 51.
  • NAS, AF59/63, 'Notes of deputation to Lord Pentland from the Scottish Council for Women's Trades, Monday March 21 1910'.
  • NAS, HH62/34, Report for Renfrewshire, p. 2.
  • NAS, HH1/569, Seasonal inflow, Irish immigration.
  • Ayrshire Post, 22 July 1910; Glasgow Herald, 14 August 1920.
  • Ayrshire Post, 22 July 1910.
  • PP, 1908, CXXI, Cd. 4123, 9.
  • NAS, HH1/569, 'Second report. Immigration of Irish workers. Substitution of Scottish for Irish labour in seasonal work in agriculture'.
  • NAS, HH1/569, Seasonal inflow, Irish immigration.
  • Heather Holmes, 'As good as a holiday', pp. 220–24.
  • Patrick MacGill, Children of the Dead End, p. 83.
  • Peadar O'Donnell, p. 188.
  • Peadar O'Donnell, p. 187.
  • NAS, DD13/1591, Minute to Mr Heighton, 'Housing of potato pickers'.
  • Patrick MacGill, Children of the Dead End, p. 86.
  • Patrick MacGill, Children of the Dead End, p. 86.
  • Sean O Ciarkin, Farewell to Mayo, pp. 80–81.
  • Sean O Ciarain, Farewell to Mayo, p. 87.
  • Father Eugene McDermottt, 'In the tatie fields of Scotland', The Irish Times, 16 December 1970; and 'Pally was the name of our foreman', Irish Press, 17 December 1970.
  • Jimmy O'Donnell, The Arranmore Disaster, p. 7.
  • Jimmy O'Donnell, The Arranmore Disaster, p. 12.
  • Jimmy O'Donnell, The Arranmore Disaster, p. 7.
  • Patrick MacGill, The Rat-Pit, p. 154.
  • Patrick MacGill, The Rat-Pit, p. 151.
  • Patrick MacGill, The Rat-Pit, p. 154.
  • Sean O Ciarkin, Farewell to Mayo, p. 78. 1°9
  • Sean O Clarkin, Farewell to Mayo, p. 72.
  • Patrick MacGill, Children of the Dead End, p. 81.
  • Jimmy O'Donnell, The Arranmore Disaster, p. 1 5.
  • Heather Holmes, 'Irish migratory potato workers in Scotland', pp. 94–95.
  • Jimmy O'Donnell, The Arranmore Disaster, p. i.
  • NAS, AF59/62, III, 'Housing of potato diggers'.
  • Patrick MacGill, The Rat-Pit, p. 139.
  • Patrick MacGill, The Rat-Pit, p. 154.
  • Patrick MacGill, The Rat-Pit, p. 154–
  • The Western People, 25 May 1963.
  • Editorial, The Western People, 8 July 1961.
  • Patrick MacGill, Children of the Dead End, p. 81.
  • NAS, AF59/63 and AF59/64, especially correspondence of Father T. A. Hayes; Heather Holmes, 'Organising the Irish migratory potato workers: the efforts of the early twentieth century', Rural History, Economy, Society, Culture, 11:2, 2000, 207–29.
  • NAS, HH72/12/7, p. 86.
  • NAS, HH63/3/12, p. 'or.
  • Western People, r6 June 5962.
  • Connaught Telegraph, 22 January 1910.
  • Connaught Telegraph, 22 January 1910.
  • The Ayrshire Advertiser, 14 July 1910.
  • The Ayrshire Advertiser, 14 July 1910.
  • The Ayrshire Advertiser, 14 July 1910.
  • The Western People, 2 October 1961.
  • The People's Press, Donegal and Tyrone News, 15 July 1961.
  • NM Bio2/2/1 (Department of Foreign Affairs).
  • NAI B1o2/2/r (Department of Foreign Affairs).
  • Western People, 27 March 1965.
  • This Week, 4 June 1971.
  • Evening Herald (Dublin), 8 June 1971.
  • The Western People, pp July 1971.
  • Sunday Independent, zo July 1971.
  • This Week, 4 June 1971.
  • Irish Independent, 5 July 1971.
  • This Week, 4 June 1971.
  • Evening Herald (Dublin), 21 June 1971.
  • Scottish Daily Express, 19 June 1971.
  • This Week, 4 June 1971.

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